If Kansas basketball’s win over Baylor on Friday, Jan. 16 proved anything, it was that Darryn Peterson is in fact one of the best players in men’s college basketball.

The freshman star guard took over in the Jayhawks’ 80-62 win over the Bears at Allen Fieldhouse with 26 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the field with two rebounds and three assists.

His 26-point outing gives him his fourth game of at least 20 points in Kansas’ last five games. It’s the sixth game this season that Peterson, who has missed some time with a hamstring injury, has reached that mark, as well.

And he could have had more: Peterson made his last basket with 16:41 to go and didn’t play at all in the final 8:01.

Here’s a deeper look into Peterson’s night against the Bears, including a look at his full box score:

Darryn Peterson stats vs Baylor

Here’s a look at Paterson’s stats from Friday’s game against Baylor:

• Points: 26
• Shooting: 11-for-13
• 3-point shooting: 2-for-4
• Free throw shooting: 2-for-4
• Rebounds: 2
• Assists: 3
• Steals: 1
• Turnovers: 0
• Minutes: 23

Darryn Peterson highlights

Here’s a look at a few highlights from Peterson’s night against the Bears:

Did Kansas basketball win today?

Yes, led by Peterson’s 26 points, Kansas picked up its third Big 12 win of the season with an 80-62 victory over Baylor on Jan. 16. The Jayhawks improved to 13-5 (3-2 in Big 12 play) on the season with the win.

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The wham-bang contract agreements forged by Kyle Tucker with the Los Angeles Dodgers and brand new New York Met Bo Bichette in the span of roughly 15 hours suddenly swept the board clean of franchise players younger than 30 – and curtailed the destinations of a few players still out there.

Bichette’s three-year, $126 million agreement resets the perception of the offseason for multiple teams, players and fan bases. With that, let’s take a look at the winners and losers from Bichette’s Citi Field foray:

Winners

Bo Bichette

Nah, it wasn’t the $300 million deal one might have envisioned for Bichette both earlier in his career and as he put together an outstanding platform season in lifting the Blue Jays to the AL East title. But lest we forget, Bichette produced a .225/.277.322 line over 81 games just one year ago, worth -0.1 WAR. He finished this regular season with an injured knee, but a gallant World Series return reminded the world how impactful a player he can be.

At second base. Yeah, Bichette had to swallow some pride and will now likely be a second or third baseman the rest of his career, his defensive metrics being what they are. Yet with all that, he will command a $42 million salary – and be able to opt out next winter, when he’s just 28.

Pete Alonso and Alex Bregman showed how swimmingly that can work out. And Bichette is both younger and more positionally diverse than both of them. He may yet near a $300 million total guarantee once he signs his next deal.

New York Mets

Had ’em all the way, eh, David Stearns?

The Mets’ unflappable president, empowered by bottomless-pocketed owner Steve Cohen’s megabucks, nearly fumbled it all away this winter – letting Alonso walk without so much as a courtesy offer, declaring he’d pass on the elite starting pitching market, losing peerless closer Edwin Diaz by just a few bucks, the eh acquisitions of infielder Jorge Polanco, second baseman Marcus Semien and closer Devin Williams.

Bichette does not cure all. There’s still a gaping hole in left field where Brandon Nimmo once stood, and there’s tons of ambiguity surrounding how much trust and how many plate appearances the Mets will invest in several young players.

Still, Cody Bellinger remains on the market if they want to go big in left, and tweak the Yankees at the same time. Stearns’ notion of going economy on the rotation looks wise – a glut of fairly trusty veteran starters remain on the market.

And Bichette’s ability to ‘flat-out hit,’ as they say – he’s twice led the AL in hits and is in the 86th percentile in K rate – will create a suffocating 1-2-3 atop the lineup with Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto.

Still not ideal. But far from the cataclysmic winter hyperventilating Mets observers envisioned.

The AL East

Whew.

For a minute there, the Blue Jays and their Rogers Communications arsenal were starting to look like George Steinbrenner North. They struck quickly for ace Dylan Cease, and the notion of adding Tucker and retaining Bichette didn’t seem so farfetched at the outset of the season.

Under those circumstances, would the Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles and Rays be playing for second? Not quite, eh, but it would have been far less optimal.

Yet 2026 will bring no Tucker and no Bichette to the Blue Jays – or anyone else in the AL. The competitive balance of both division and league suddenly got a lot flatter.

J.T. Realmuto

The venerable Phillies catcher had been locked in a staring contest with his club, which just so happened to schedule a Zoom call with Bichette four days ago. Signing Bichette would have required moving several pieces around – and moving on from Realmuto.

Yet just hours after Bichette’s Mets agreement, team and club found common ground on a three-year, $45 million deal, ensuring their ironman backstop who turns 35 in March is back in the fold.

Losers

Toronto Blue Jays

You just hate to see it.

Sure, the re-signing of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a $500 million extension seemed certain to break up the organization’s power couple: Bo and Vladdy, together for a decade, legacy players and beloved in all of Canada.

Yet Bichette’s subpar 2024 dampened his value. His 2025 comeback did not totally send it into the stratosphere. Maybe the de facto brothers would be together forever.

Alas, it will be Vladdy going it alone, and suddenly the Jays’ $60 million signing of Japanese infielder Kazuma Okamoto looks all the more critical. His early performance will be watched warily, as Japanese hitters often need a greater adjustment time than pitchers.

So, too, will the Blue Jays’ many playoff heroes. Ernie Clement and Addison Barger and Andrés Giménez are now far more primary, rather than complementary pieces.

Sure, the Jays may yet forge a mini-dynasty in the AL. But it just got a lot tougher.

Cody Bellinger

For a minute there, it looked like he had the Yankees over a barrel. Maybe he still does.

But as he and the Yankees squabble over number of years on a contract, two of his alternatives – the Dodgers and Mets – spent big for Tucker and Bichette. Not to say the Mets won’t get back in the Bellinger game, and perhaps the Blue Jays will jump in, with money to burn and an upgrade over Nathan Lukes readily available.

We still believe the Yankees and Belli will find common ground somewhere between five and seven years. But it feels like the Yankees wield a little more clout in the power exchange now.

Mets corner infielders

Maybe someday, Mark Vientos and Brett Baty will get an unadulterated crack at a full-time job.

Unfortunately, they are developing players on a club that will be in perpetual win-now mode for the foreseeable future. And thus, Baty’s 3.1 WAR accrued in a 121-game 2025 campaign gets nudged to the side. Vientos’s backslide in 2025 after a second-half surge in 2024 might have slammed the door on any chance at a full-time gig going forward.

For now, the two third basemen are DH partners on paper, but with four projected regulars in their 30s, it’s not hard to imagine many of those at-bats will be gobbled up by veterans needing a day out of the field.

Perhaps a trade and a fresh start will be in the offing for one of them. For now, winter remains the time their playing time dreams evaporate.

Atlanta Braves

It’s getting increasingly difficult for one of the game’s best-run organizations to keep up with the Northeast behemoths.

The Braves were considered a solid candidate for Bichette’s services at the start of the winter. They opted to retain shortstop Ha-Seong Kim. Totally fine. Really good player.

Yet it will be hard to match the Mets’ and Phillies’ firepower, especially since Atlanta’s 2026 calculus likely bakes in bounceback seasons from the likes of Austin Riley and Jurickson Profar. Their margin for error is looking pretty thin.

It’s not like the Braves are paupers; listen to any old Liberty Media earnings call and you realize the Braves and The Battery are, as public equity bros might say, just printing. Still, they remain hesitant for big free agent splashes that upset the formula of retaining their own players.

From 2018 to 2023, when they ruled the NL East, that was fine. But it seems to get harder every year.

AI-assisted summary
• Data shows Colorado coach Deion Sanders has altered his recruiting approach after a 3-9 season.
• This new approach mirrors the one used by Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, who has led his team to the national championship game.
• Unlike Cignetti, Sanders continues to rely heavily on the transfer portal instead of high school recruiting.

In an effort to revive his football program after a 3-9 season last year, Colorado coach Deion Sanders has developed a new blueprint for success.

It’s the same sort of blueprint that’s led Indiana to the national championship game against Miami on Jan. 19. It relates to recruiting new players and choosing “production over potential” when evaluating those recruits, even if it means recruiting players from the lower rungs of college football.  

This year, Sanders has received commitments from 23 transfer players who previously played outside of the spotlight of the Power Four conferences, including at Albany, Monmouth, Lafayette, New Mexico State, North Dakota State, Sacramento State and San Jose State.  But they’re productive college players with the game film to prove it, which often can be a better strategy than taking a backup player with “potential” from a big-time team in the Power Four.

“I know what I want,” Sanders said about recruiting recently on The Morning Run podcast. “I know how I want it. I know what we need and how we need it and the type of young man that we needed.”

Deion Sanders’ new recruiting strategy

Data compiled by USA TODAY Sports shows how Sanders has changed his recruiting approach this year as the transfer portal closes on Friday, Jan. 16. He has commitments from 35 transfer players, only 11 of whom are from other Power Four teams in the Big 12, Big Ten, ACC or SEC, plus one from Notre Dame. The rest are from lower levels of competition in the Group of Five conferences and the Football Bowl Subdivision (FCS).

In Sanders’ three previous recruiting seasons, more than half of his transfer recruits came from Power Four teams.

His new transfer recruits include former San Jose State receiver Danny Scudero, who led the nation in receiving yards per game in 2025 with 108.1.

Players from lower levels like him are generally looking to play on a bigger stage where there’s also more money to be earned from name, image and likeness deals (NIL).

By contrast, transfers from other Power Four often are looking for more playing time because they didn’t get it at their previous school. But the risk with taking players like that is that there was a reason they didn’t get that playing time at their previous school — because they weren’t good enough.

Last year Sanders acknowledged he “missed” on a number of these recruits. Now he’s mirroring the approach taken last year by Indiana coach Curt Cignetti.

“It is clearly influenced by what Curt Cignetti has done,” said former Penn State tight end Adam Breneman, co-founder The College Sports Company. “This is the smartest counter to the current portal economy. You are buying proven production, not betting on upside. FCS and Group of Five starters have already shown they can handle volume, pressure, and accountability, while Power Four backups are still projections.”

How Deion Sanders’ strategy resembles Curt Cignetti’s

In one respect, it was Cignetti who first copied Sanders in 2024 when he brought 13 players with him to Indiana from James Madison, where he previously coached outside the Power Four. A year earlier, Sanders brought nine scholarship players to Colorado with him from Jackson State, where Sanders previously coached in the FCS. That included his quarterback son Shedeur and two-way star Travis Hunter, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2024.

That foundation led both to success — a 9-4 record for Colorado in 2024 and two College Football Playoff berths for Indiana in 2024 and 2025. But Cignetti appeared to take it a step further. In 2024, 23 of the 30 transfer players he signed came from lower levels outside the Power Four, including from Old Dominion, Kent State and Austin Peay. One of them was former James Madison receiver Elijah Sarratt, who leads Indiana with 15 touchdown catches this season.

That was Cignetti’s first year at Indiana, when he almost had to build his roster from scratch.

“We signed 22 guys that all have been two- or three-year starters with consistent production,” he told reporters Jan. 12. “I knew we had flipped the roster.”

In 2025, Cignetti signed nine out of 23 transfers from outside the Power Four.

He said he was especially fond of a certain type of player: “Older, mature guys that played a lot of football.”

‘Production over potential’ for Deion Sanders

Sanders is getting a number of those types of players this year, even some from the Power Four level. Texas starting wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. recently committed to joining Colorado. So did Vanderbilt safety Randon Fontenette, who started 24 games the past two seasons.

But Sanders also mined the lower levels to a greater extent for players like Albany defensive lineman Balansama Kamara, who ranked first on his team last season with 7.5 sacks. Sanders’ new offensive coordinator Brennan Marion even is planning to bring four players with him from Sacramento State of the FCS, where Marion served as head coach last year.

“The risk is fit and ceiling,” Breneman told USA TODAY Sports. “Not every productive lower-division player scales up the same way, especially physically and mentally. If your evaluation is lazy, you end up with a roster full of solid players but not enough difference-makers. Cignetti succeeds because he is elite at identifying which production translates. If others copy the idea without that eye, it will fail fast.”

High school factor for Curt Cignetti, Deion Sanders

Sanders’ strategy differs from Cignetti’s in one key respect — recruiting high school players. Cignetti has envisioned decreasing his volume of players from the transfer portal while high school recruiting builds up to replace it based on the success of his program. His transfer class has 17 commitments for 2026, down from his previous two seasons.

“This year we’ll take a few less than we took last year, and we took a few less last year than we took the year before,” Cignetti said of the transfer portal.

By contrast, Sanders has been a pioneer of flipping his roster with transfer players since his first season at Colorado in 2023. He still recruits so few high school players that it’s become an issue in the state. For 2026, he signed only 11. His strategy is based on the notion if the high school recruit isn’t good enough to play right away, why sign him when he’ll leave for more playing time somewhere else after sitting on the bench at Colorado?

His incoming transfer class currently was ranked No. 18 by 247Sports, as of Jan. 16.  More than 30 scholarship players from 2025 are transferring out of Colorado at the same time, including star offensive tackle Jordan Seaton and standout safety Tawfiq Byard.

‘We’re intentional,’ Deion Sanders says

Some have questioned this approach after two losing seasons in three years.

“We’ve got no continuity in the locker room,” former Colorado linebacker Chad Brown told USA TODAY Sports in November. “There’s no continuity on the coaching staff. And so how do you build something when it’s all restarting every single year?”

Sanders hopes the answer this time is fewer “misses” and more “production over potential,” as seen by the way Cignetti built his program in just two years.

“We’re intentional with everything we do,” Sanders said on the podcast.

Meanwhile, the undefeated Hoosiers play for their first national title Monday night in Miami.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

(This story was updated to add new information.)

The Sacramento Kings could see the return of their All-Star power forward Jan. 16 in their Friday night game against the Washington Wizards.

Kings forward Domantas Sabonis is officially listed as questionable on the NBA’s Injury Report, but the team expects that he will suit up and play against the Wizards, according to ESPN.

Sabonis, a three-time All-Star, has missed the previous 27 games for the Kings with a partially torn meniscus.

He only appeared in 11 games so far this season, averaging 17.2 points and 12.3 rebounds.

In recent days, Sabonis was seen participating in shootaround during practices. Signs indicate he’ll rejoin the court with the Kings soon. And at a good time, too.

Sacramento has been rolling on a three-game winning streak at home, knocking off the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks.

They’ll also get back Dennis Schroder, who missed that three-game stretch of wins after being suspended by the league for an altercation with Lakers’ star Luka Doncic after a Dec. 28 game at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Sabonis trade market, contract status

Sabonis, in his 10th NBA season and year five in Sacramento, could be on the trade market.

Sabonis’ remaining contract includes three years and $136.3 million.

He signed a four-year, $186 million contract extension with Sacramento as part of a renegotiation-and-extend on July 6, 2023.

Domantas Sabonis highlights

Mississippi football quarterback Trinidad Chambliss’ legal team filed a suit against the NCAA in a Mississippi court on Friday, Jan. 16 as the QB seeks an extra year of eligibility.

According to multiple reports, Chambliss and his legal team filed in the Chancery Court of Lafayette County on Jan. 16. He is being represented by Tom Mars and Mississippi attorney William Liston, according to the Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network.

The lawsuit from Chambliss comes after the NCAA’s ‘bad-father, unreasonable’ decision to deny an initial waiver for an additional year of eligibility for the 2026 college football season.

Chambliss has been asking for a medical redshirt for the 2022 season, when he was playing at Division II Ferris State. That season, Chambliss didn’t play any games as he was dealing with persistent respiratory issues that ultimately led to the removal of his tonsils.

‘I deserve (another year),’ Chambliss said Dec. 30 during a CFP media availability ahead of the Sugar Bowl. ‘I’ve only played three seasons of college football. I feel like I deserve to play four. I redshirted in 2021. That was my freshman redshirt. Then I medically redshirted in 2022. Played in 2023, 2024 and this is 2025.’

He added: ‘I had chronic tonsillitis. I also had heart palpitations and trouble breathing. My respiratory system just wasn’t the best at the time.’

‘Approval requires schools to submit medical documentation provided by a treating physician at the time of a student’s incapacitating injury or illness, which was not provided. The documents provided by Ole Miss and the student’s prior school include a physician’s note from a December 2022 visit, which stated the student-athlete was ‘doing very well’ since he was seen in August 2022,’ the NCAA wrote in its statement on Jan. 9.

‘Additionally, the student-athlete’s prior school indicated it had no documentation on medical treatment, injury reports or medical conditions involving the student-athlete during that time frame and cited ‘developmental needs and our team’s competitive circumstances’ as its reason the student-athlete did not play in the 2022-23 season. The waiver request was denied.’

After taking over in Week 2 vs. Kentucky for injured starting quarterback Austin Simmons, Chambliss helped Ole Miss to a program-best 13-2 record and a College Football Playoff semifinal appearance this past season. In 15 games at Ole Miss, Chambliss threw for 3,937 yards, 22 touchdown passes and three interceptions while rushing for an additional 527 yards and eight touchdowns. He finished eighth in Heisman Trophy voting.

He nearly sent the Rebels to the CFP national championship game, but the Rebels’ answer to Carson Beck’s 3-yard go-ahead rushing TD for Miami in the CFP Fiesta Bowl semifinal came up short. Chambliss finished 23-of-37 passing for 277 yards and a touchdown in Ole Miss’ 31-27 semifinal loss.

Should Chambliss not win his legal battle against the NCAA, he does have the option to head to the NFL, where he is expected to be one of the first handful of quarterbacks taken in the draft. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. views him as the third-ranked quarterback in the class.

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Days after the NCAA added it to its Emerging Sports for Women program, a Power 4 school is launching a varsity women’s flag football team.

Nebraska announced Friday it’s adding a women’s flag football program as its 25th varsity sport, becoming the first school from a Power 4 conference to do so. The Cornhuskers said in a statement that they plan to hire the team’s first head coach by July, and aim to begin playing games in the 2028 season — the same year the sport will make its Olympic debut at the Summer Games in Los Angeles.

“This is a banner day for Nebraska Athletics and for women’s sports,” Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen said in a statement. “Flag football is one of the nation’s fastest growing sports and has exploded in popularity at the youth, high school and collegiate level.”

With the addition of Nebraska, there are now 10 Division I NCAA schools who have announced their intentions to start a varsity women’s flag football program. The others are Mount St. Mary’s, UT Arlington, Alabama State, Cal Poly, Fairleigh Dickinson, Long Island University, Mercyhurst, Mississippi Valley State, and North Alabama.

Last year, the NCAA reported at least 65 schools across all divisions planned to sponsor women’s flag football at the varsity or club level. Last spring, the Division III Atlantic East Conference was the first to play a full varsity season of the sport and host a conference tournament, with Marymount winning the championship.

Flag football is the first varsity sport Nebraska has added since 2013, when it began its beach volleyball program. Five other Big Ten schools have, or plan to start, club teams for women’s flag football.

One of the institutions pushing the growth of flag football is the NFL, with all 32 of its teams supporting youth and college programs within their markets. Troy Vincent, the NFL’s Executive Vice President of Football Operations, called Nebraska “pioneers” for adding the sport and said in a statement it “marks a groundbreaking moment for collegiate athletics.”

The Eastern College Athletic Conference announced it will launch a women’s flag football league as well with a $1 million investment from the New York Jets through the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation. The league will begin play next month.

Women’s flag football is a spring sport and Nebraska says it will play 12 to 24 games in a season. The Cornhuskers are hoping to have 15 players on the roster by this fall, then increase the roster size to 20 to 25 players by the time they start playing games in 2028. Nebraska said it’s possible the team will play some unofficial games in 2027.

Last spring, as part of its Husker Games, Nebraska fielded a team against NAIA Midland University in an exhibition. Following that game, Dannen alluded to the possibility of the Cornhuskers adding the sport.

“Eventually we’re going to have another women’s sport here at Nebraska from a Title IX standpoint, and I think women’s flag football is one of those sports that — I wanted to see it live myself. And we had a lot of fans come and watch it,” Dannen said on the Husker Radio Network. “I think it’s something we should all keep a close eye on with women’s flag football.”

Before legislation is considered for women’s flag football to reach NCAA championship status, the sport has to be sponsored at the varsity level by at least 40 schools. Those teams would also have to meet minimums in games played and player participation before the sport sees the launch of its own NCAA Tournament.

According to the National Sporting Goods Association, flag football was the sport that grew the most at the youth level in 2024, with participation increasing by 21%. Flag football is now offered at a high school level in 38 states.

AI-assisted summary
• After 19 seasons, Mike Tomlin has stepped down as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• Tomlin made the decision to leave himself, rather than being fired by the organization.
• He leaves with a record of 201 wins, eight division titles, and one Super Bowl victory.
• Tomlin may take a break from coaching and potentially pursue a career in broadcasting.

Here’s to the Terrible Towel-waving fans at Acrisure Stadium who chanted for the firing of Mike Tomlin as Pittsburgh Steelers coach: You’ve got your wish. Sort of. He’s gone.

In the end, though, the mob wanting Tomlin’s head on a platter didn’t fully get their wish.

That’s because Tomlin fired himself.

He came to the storied franchise in 2007 with so much dignity as an under-the-radar rising star. He left with his dignity fully intact.

That is important, too, in assessing the journey for Tomlin, who stepped down as the NFL’s longest-tenured coach on Jan. 13. In a league with such a shabby track record for hiring Black coaches, he also became a symbol of just what can be achieved with equal opportunity, a walking example of the merits of the Rooney Rule, named for the man, late Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who hired him.

Regardless of race, dignity is hardly guaranteed in Tomlin’s intense, high-stakes profession – especially now, with the ‘absolute joke’ of an environment fueled by so many social media experts, as Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers called it – where coaches so often get kicked to the curb like yesterday’s trash.

No, Tomlin didn’t want to go out matching a dubious NFL record with seven consecutive playoff losses. If the last one, a thorough beatdown from the Houston Texans on Jan. 12, pushed him over the edge then so be it.

He still lasted 19 years and won 201 games. Never had a losing season and collected eight division titles. He won a Super Bowl and lost a Super Bowl.

And despite the fact it has been nearly a decade since the proud franchise (which displays six Lombardi Trophies in the lobby at team headquarters) last won a playoff game, Tomlin still could have returned in 2026 to try again. Now that’s some dignity.

Mike Tomlin decides it’s time – on his time

As Art Rooney II, the Steelers owner, explained it, he expected his Jan. 13 meeting with Tomlin to be another in a series of end-of-the-season sessions that began setting the course for the offseason. Like clockwork, habit and stability would suggest.

In other words, Tomlin, 53, wasn’t pushed out or asked to resign for the purpose of appearances. He was empowered to reach his own conclusion.

It’s time.

In one sense, the postseason results fueled the case for change. Tomlin had a hard time living up to his motto, “The standard is the standard.” Ask John Harbaugh. The inability to win big again was key to Harbaugh’s firing a week earlier after 18 seasons as Baltimore Ravens coach, which made him the NFL’s second-longest tenured coach. Good for Harbaugh, a class act, that he quickly landed with a fresh start as New York Giants coach.

In Tomlin’s case, it got worse after Ben Roethlisberger retired following the 2021 campaign, as the Steelers cycled through mediocre quarterbacking from the likes of Mason Rudolph, Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. That matched the uninspiring input during that span from offensive coordinators Matt Canada and Arthur Smith. And the defense hasn’t been a consistent, championship-level unit, either.

When Rodgers arrived in June, he brought fresh hope – even when considering the aging quarterback was gearing up for a 21st season – that perhaps he could provide the missing piece for the equation. He and Tomlin seemingly made a perfect match as two monumental figures desperately seeking to recapture championship glory.

Well, we’ve seen how that worked out. Rodgers never produced as few points in a playoff game as was the case on Monday night. And the Steelers never suffered a worse home playoff loss. Ouch.

Now the Steelers – with three coaches since 1969 – can move on with a search to find the next Tomlin, Bill Cowher or Chuck Noll. The franchise’s tradition for allowing patience in sticking with its coach undoubtedly adds to the appeal for those seeking to land the job.

Yet it’s also time in another sense for Tomlin.

Tomlin will return to coaching when he wants to. Until then…

Time to reenergize. It was significant that Rooney maintained during his Jan. 14 press briefing that Tomlin’s decision to bolt wasn’t as much a football-related move as it was a family-related decision. Rooney also insisted that Tomlin, still contractually tied to the Steelers, isn’t looking to coach again any time soon.

Of course, Tomlin’s the only one who can fully explain his reason for walking away.

Yet I’m wondering whether the toll of his job – the pressure and tremendous leadership responsibilities were enveloped by what might have seemed like 167-hour work weeks – took enough of a toll. If burnout was a factor, Tomlin would be far from the first coach to feel that weight. If he decides to coach again in the future, the time to recharge his battery will be golden. Ask Sean Payton. In three seasons since his one-year, post-New Orleans hiatus, Payton has turned the Denver Broncos into the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.

Sure, Tomlin is a football savant and like pretty much everyone in the coaching circle at his level, a workaholic who loved the nitty-gritty elements of the job. He’s also a man, a husband, father of three, son and then some.

After 19 years on his last job, and more years climbing the ladder to land that opportunity, nobody can knock his hustle. Tomlin has surely earned a break.

After all, if he indeed decides to coach again Tomlin – who took five of his last six teams to the playoffs – would be at least as hot as Harbaugh.

But there’s no rush. In the meantime, speculation that the gregarious Tomlin will land with a network has ramped up in a hurry. He’d bring presence, wisdom, witty one-liners and classic metaphors such as “two dogs, one bone.” We’ll see. There will be no shortage of potential suitors. Payton spent all of one year working for Fox Sports, while Cowher, Jimmy Johnson and Tony Dungy are Hall of Famers who opted for extended TV runs.

Knowing Tomlin, to some degree, I doubt that noise from the outside drove him away. The heat has always been part of the deal. And Tomlin, for everything that comes with his knack for relating to people as individuals, has long struck me as possessing such a sharp perception for assessing the bigger picture – not just in a football sense, but also from a real-world perspective. That’s one reason I’d suspect criticism from passionate fans probably rolled off his back.

As for the encore, well, it can wait.

Tomlin has earned the right to rearrange football amid the priorities of life. It’s time.

Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell

The New York Rangers, less than two years removed from being the league’s best regular-season team, are calling for a ‘retool.’

General manager Chris Drury sent out a message to fans on Jan. 16 with the struggling Rangers sitting in last place in the Eastern Conference.

‘With our position in the standings and injuries to key players this season, we must be honest and realistic about our situation,’ he wrote. ‘We are not going to stand pat – a shift will give us the ability to be smart and opportunistic as we retool the team. This will not be a rebuild. This will be a retool built around our core players and prospects.

‘We will target players that bring tenacity, skill, speed and a winning pedigree with a focus on obtaining young players, draft picks and cap space to allow us flexibility moving forward. That may mean saying goodbye to players that have brought us and our fans great moments over the years. These players represented the Rangers with pride and class and will always be a part of our family.’

The Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy and reached the Eastern Conference finals in 2023-24. They missed the playoffs last season, leading to a coaching change to Mike Sullivan.

But fortunes haven’t changed. They have lost five in a row, starting in a game in which star goaltender Igor Shesterkin was hurt. In the four games since, they have given up 27 goals. Defenseman Adam Fox is also out with an injury.

Rangers’ salary cap situation

According to puckpedia.com, the Rangers have a little more than $3,000 in cap space available.

Artemi Panarin is in the final year of his contract and would fetch prospects and picks if dealt. He has an $11.6 million cap hit and a full no-movement clause that the Rangers would need to get him to waive. The Athletic reported that Panarin was told his contract wouldn’t be extended.

Many of their other veterans are locked in long-term, including Fox and Vincent Trocheck (2029), J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad (2030) and Shesterkin (2033).

‘You will begin to see some of our plans come to light in the coming weeks and months,’ Drury wrote.

The NHL trade deadline is at 3 p.m. ET on March 6.